So far nobody has made the necessary connection between Indil's dreams and Amroth, Nimrodel, Mithrellas, and Imrazor. Until that occurs, the rationale for taking Indil with to hunt for the women has not occurred. Dense Raefindan.

1. Raefindan (or somebody) realizes that Indil's dreams are about the Amroth quest.

2. It is determined which males are willing to be on the remainder of the quest. Liornung? (depending on Nuru) Erebemlin - yes; Taitheneb? (I don't think we need him); Ădegard - yes, for now; Raefindan - yes; Ravion? (where's Orual? and do we need him if we have Bergil and Erebemlin to track?); Mellondu - yes; Bergil - yes; Aeron - yes. Any men I've forgotten?

3. The males hunt for the women.

4. Saethryd succeeds in nursing Mellonin back to health.

5. Jorje returns to Rugh and somehow R figures out that he must go with Jorje back to Saethryd.

6. TharonwŰ captures Leafa and Bella (nobody thought of this until this moment, but we need some suspense, no?)

So far nobody has made the necessary connection between Indil's dreams and Amroth, Nimrodel, Mithrellas, and Imrazor. Until that occurs, the rationale for taking Indil with to hunt for the women has not occurred. Dense Raefindan.

Since this part most pertains to me...

Indil is most attached to Raefindan and Bergil, so they'd be the ones she's be speaking directly to. Of the two, Bergil is less likely to realize Indil's dreams are related to the quest, due to character and lack of association thus far with the quest itself.

She's downright nervous around Erebemlin, though his being an Elf makes for plausible understanding on this.

I doubt it would be Ădegard or Ravion.

Maybe Mellondu because of his own experience.

I would say maybe Aeron would figure it out because of Gwyllion showing up rather frequently, because he's a sharp fellow, and because he strikes me as the type to know and realize more than he maybe ought.

Of the male characters, I'd guess the most likely to catch the connection will be either Raefindan, Erebemlin, or Aeron.

I had intended on another Raefindan post in which it finally dawns on him what's probably going on, but I wanted to get your reply first. If Imladris wishes to have Aeron take part, that could make a very interesting conversation between Raefindan and Aeron. Maybe we could even throw in a few of those old anacronysms from Roy Edwards' 21st century speech (remember those?). Since Alak isn't around much to write Erebemlin, I'm content to let him remain and secondary character. What do you say, Immy? Want to have Aeron join Indil and Raefindan for a little bit of give-and-take mindplay?

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know, while my computer is working, that I'm not sure how reliable I'm going to be able to be. I got back in town Friday to find no internet, then today I got home from a quick day trip to find it working again...

I've returned after a lovely trip, despite earaches and a nasty cough. I'm still suffering from a cold, along with jet-lag and the miserable prospect of having to unpack everything, so it will probably be another week before I can fully reappear (though I do want to keep going as Liornung... haven't decided about Leafa yet).

In the meantime, I'd ask you all to say a prayer for this young man and his family, and for my younger brother. The stabbing took place on our last night in Ireland, and my brother walked out from a movie with his cousins right onto the scene. He's the same age as the victim, and it's been very hard on him. Needless to say, we're trying to recover from this as well as the illness.

__________________In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
in every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.

I definitely, most positively want to continue on with Liornung. For one thing, it's just against his character to give up and go home when he resolved to do something... and secondly, I immensely like playing him and playing this game, and don't want to bid farewells.

But I do have a question...

Is anyone willing to take the character of Leafa?

If not, we can discuss potential fates for good or ill.

__________________In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
in every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.

lmp, yes, I saw the posts concerning Leafa. Her death is a potential option, but I want to see if anyone is willing to take her on or not.

And even if there's no one willing, I still have to figure out if it would be right or not. Both in books and movies of late I've been coming across deaths that were put in the story merely for a tragedy, but weren't right in any way. They weren't simply sad... they also came across as being all wrong. And not wrong in the sense that any violent death is, but wrong story-wise, if that is at all clear.

So... I'm still pondering. And of course I still would have to get over being sentimental about her, too.

__________________In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
in every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.

Yes, Nuru, and I'd like to get rid of Ădegard. Why? Well, he's just not that interesting to me. Falling in love with Leafa helped a little bit, but I just don't find him very interesting. Maybe I would have more a few years ago; fact is, I created him as a fun and games character for a winter snowball fight in Edoras a few years ago and never meant him for more than that, but he got swooshed into this tale. I'd much rather spend my time on Raefindan and Jorje. So I'm not really keen on taking on Leafa at all. One of these times, Ădegard is going to bite the dust. And that would actually fit very well into that song of the lover's ghost coming back to the lover, but only if there's someone who cares about those two characters enough. Otherwise, I can't see much point in them even being part of the adventure anymore. Let them go to Leafa's papa, get approval to get married, and go be wainwright and wife in Edoras. That's my humble opinion.

I know what you mean about 'wrong' deaths. There's a difference between crying out 'That's not right!' on an emotional level and quite another looking at a death inserted into a story and wondering what its purpose is.

I definately agree that we shouldn't just kill her off, brush the dirt off our hands, and move on. Anything that happens to the two lovebirds needs to further the plot and be true to the characters, end of story.

Find a way to break what binds them to the quest. Maybe have an Elf intuitively see that they need to be an example of the hope and love that must live on unfettered. Send 'em off to get married and live happily ever after. It's a sweet illustration of what's worth fighting for. They've done all they can, now it's time for sweet reward.

Here's a thought. Have someone dream of Ădegard throwing his life away in a stupid and unnecessary fight against Tharonwe. Then have a different someone dream - same night - of Ădegard being told by Bethberry that his work is done - he has helped bring Mellondu to the Elves, and has met the woman he was meant to meet, and his task is now finished.

Ick. After getting that written out I could feel it was nonsense. It just seems to me that Ădegard is supposed to die, perhaps saving someone else's life. Hmm....

lmp, just because I adore happy endings, I'd love to see the two of them simply go back home and get married. And, of course, if you did it the dream way, you'd be able to write out a tragic and heroic death scene without having it actually come to pass.

But regardless of what actually happens, it occurred to me that it would be a good thing for Liornung, or, rather, for me as the writer of Liornung. He's been sticking pretty close to Ădegard and Leafa. The former he swaps songs and stories with, the latter he sort of adopted when she joined them. If they make their exit from the story Bella will be the only one left who he really considers himself close to. And at this point in time she's off somewhere in the wilderness. This will make things interesting for him.

And along those some lines, if death for Ădegard or Leafa or both comes up, we also have to consider Liornung. He's very much involved in their story, and a sad ending for them would also have a deep effect on how his tale ends.

Oh, and I wanted to add as a last note... Fea, thanks for all your input on the Ădegard and Leafa story. It's very helpful to have the opinions and thoughts of one who isn't personally involved with the characters... though to me the story of Ădegard and Leafa is done, having known them for as long as I have, I get all wishy-washy whenever I think of them. When one devotes so much time and creative energy into creating a personality and a character, one sometimes has a slightly skewed vision of what serves the story best.

__________________In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
in every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.

I like the solution, Nuru. I can make the dream as heroic and grisly as fits, and then we can have a mushy papa ending for the pair. I don't NEED to kill off Ădegard, I just need to be freed from writing him.

I just wrote that Tharonwe has captured Bella and Leafa on his way into the White Mountains. He is tracking down Mellonin.

Meanwhile, the Men are getting ready to leave Minas Tirith.

The upshot is that there will have to be a reunion, and this will occur with Tharonwe smack in the middle of it unless one of the characters can figure out a way to get Th's captives away from him without Ădegard getting involved, since he'll be spoiling for a fight.

Couldn't we somehow tie this in with Ădegard's dream of his death in a fight against Tharonwe? Say, for instance, that through a dream he finds that the women have been captured, and he goes in search of them... on the way he could dream of his death in attempting to save the women. And perhaps Indil could have a dream that is somehow connected, which leads her to leave the camp, which leads Tharonwe to trail her.

I don't know. It just seems that the fact that Tharonwe has captured the women is perfect for the idea of Ădegard's dream.

__________________In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
in every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.

Well, Fea, I know that Celuien is busy beyond hope, which puts a major kink in her writing here; Firefoot seems to be occupied elsewhere by and large; Nuru has expressed renewed interest lately but sporadically. I don't know what's become of Formy. Immy is generally within reach and will post when "the fit takes her" or when prodded, according to my experience. And you have spoken of your own difficulties getting here. None of the other writers are active, period.

What I WANT is for this to gain momentum and turn into something powerful interesting and engrossing.

I don't see that happening. In fact, I don't see anything better than this continuing to crawl, at least not until the school year.

So I'm WILLING to just let it sit until others show interest in the only way that really counts, by posting to the story thread. Carrying it by myself just isn't appealing.

I just don't think that a post from Aeron at this time would necessarily push the story along...but I'll try to scramble something together in the next few days. Started a new job and still getting used to the new schedule and have tests to study for (it's so nice getting payed to study )

__________________

I'm sorry it wasn't a unicorn. It would have been nice to have unicorns.